UPDATED 10:27 P.M.:Broomfield on Tuesday chose Randy Ahrens as its next mayor.

As of 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, Ahrens had a 3,477 -vote lead over candidate Dennis McCloskey.

Ahrens had 9,682 votes to McCloskey's 6,205 according to the results posted by the Broomfield Elections Office. There were 17,428 ballots counted when those totals were reported, representing nearly 50 percent of registered voters in Broomfield.

At an election party at Bumper's Grill, Ahrens gave a victory speech to his supporters and promised to lead Broomfield responsibly over the next two years.

“Now the work begins to make Broomfield an even better place,” he said to a crowd of supporters. “I am going to do everything I can to make Broomfield a fine place to live.”

Ahrens has been involved in Broomfield politics in several ways. He owns the manufacturers representative firm Frontier Components and was the 2011 chairman of the Broomfield Chamber of Commerce. He serves as a director for the Broomfield Evening Rotary Club and is on the Broomfield Legacy Committee for the Broomfield Community Foundation. He was on Broomfield City Council from 2001 to 2009 and also served as mayor pro tem and served on the committee to make Broomfield a city and county.

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The two candidates were vying for the position after announcing their candidacy in December 2012. Current mayor Pat Quinn is term-limited.

McCloskey, a retired teacher, is currently term-limited as councilman for Ward 2. McCloskey has represented Broomfield on the board of directors for the Denver Regional Council of Governments, a cooperative planning organization for the nine-county Denver-metro area, most recently serving as board chair.

McCloskey said he has been involved in Broomfield for years and wants to continue to help with issues, such as transportation and human services.

“When you get involved, you realize you can have a positive impact,” he said at his election night party at Delvickio's restaurant.

In City Council races, Liz Law-Evans was leading Stan Jezierski by 763 votes in Ward 1 and Sharon Tessier was 354 votes ahead of Lou Leone in Ward 2. Both of those seats were vacated by term limited council members — Bob Gaiser in Ward 1 and McCloskey in Ward 2.

In the two other contested races, incumbents retained their seats: Sam Taylor defeated Richard Chervenak by 367 votes Ward 3, and Greg Stokes defeated challenger Robert Cannan by a margin of 1,823 votes in Ward 4. Ward 5 incumbent Martha Derda was unopposed in her bid to retain the seat.

Broomfield County Clerk Jim Candelarie said Broomfield has seen a recent increase in voters for off-year elections.

Between 2003 and 2011, typically about 11,230 voters — 51 percent of registered voters— voted in off-year elections, meaning they vote in elections that do not include presidential races.

This year, however, Candelarie estimates around 20,000 Broomfield residents voted in the election, or about 55 percent of the population.

Part of that increase is attributed to a larger population, but also to a 2012 regulation change that allowed some voters who had not voted in the past few years to request a mail ballot or vote in person, even if they had been listed as an inactive voter in the past.